Dr George Roberts, Principal Lecturer (emeritus), Oxford Brookes University
George has been at Oxford Brookes since 2000 and joined OCSLD in June 2006 as an Educational Developer (e-Learning). In his previous role he advised the Head of e-Learning and the Senior Management Team of the University on policy for off-campus e-learning and e-learning partnerships. He has lead and taught on the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE) as well as conducting other educational development activities: workshops and consultancies.
George completed a doctorate at the University of Southampton on biographical narratives of adult users of a community IT centre on a large estate. He has also undertaken research into the pedagogical, social and technical dimensions of e-learning nationally and internationally and is interested in the interactions between personal identity and the values and beliefs that are embedded in the artefacts of Learning Technology.
Previously, George taught on the Open University MA course, “Language and Literacy in a Changing World”. He was on the Executive Committee of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and head of the organising committee of the ALT-C conference from 2005-2007. For 10 years before joining Brookes he was an instructional designer in the international energy industry.
If you want to know more about his professional activities online:
Dr Juliet Henderson, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University
Juliet is Senior Lecturer in Language and Communication and Instructor English for Academic Purposes at the Westminster Institute of Education at Oxford Brookes. She teaches on the BA in Communication Media and Culture, the International Foundation Diploma, and the English for University Studies course.
After completing a BA in History and English Literature, Juliet moved to Paris where she lived for 15 years. Whilst there she worked for the Department of Education teaching phonetics and phonology to French lycée teachers. She also taught English at the MBA Institute and Versailles University. On her return to England she was a visiting lecturer in the department of Applied Linguistics at Luton University, where she studied for an MA in Intercultural Communication under Professor Helen Spencer-Oatey.
Juliet's research interests lie in the field of intercultural communication and rhetoric, and ways in which our perceptions of self and other, and our intersubjective constructions of that relationship, constrain and determine language choice. She is currently conducting research into student and educator practices and ideals relating to internationalisation of the curriculum and the student learning experience at Brookes.
Chris Rust, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, Oxford Brookes University
Before retiring in September, 2014, after over 25 years at Oxford Brookes, Chris had been Associate Dean (Academic Policy). Previously, for ten years, he was Head of the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD), and Deputy Director of the Human Resource Directorate.
In the 90s he contributed to the design and delivery of a national programme of staff development in higher education on the issue of teaching more students and over the years has run numerous workshops around the country and internationally on a range of issues including teaching large classes, developing assessment strategies, and engaging students with assessment and feedback.
Between 2005 - 2010 he was also a Deputy Director for two Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning - ASKe (Assessment Standards Knowledge Exchange) and the Reinvention Centre for undergraduate research (led by Warwick University).
In OCSLD, with thirteen colleagues, he helped to provide both staff and educational development support to the University’s academic Faculties and support Directorates for nearly 23 years. For six years he was Course Leader for the University’s initial training course for new teaching staff.
He achieved a PhD by publication in 2003 and became a professor in March, 2010.
He has researched and published on a range of issues including:
- the experiences of new teachers in HE
- the positive effects of supplemental instruction
- ways of diversifying assessment
- improving student performance through engagement in the marking process
- the effectiveness of workshops as a method of staff development
- the design, development and use of social learning space in universities
- the development of research-based learning in the undergraduate curriculum, including its potential effect on university organization
More recently he increasingly focused on researching and writing about assessment, including: improving student learning through active engagement with assessment feedback, the significance of both explicit articulation and socialisation processes in improving students' understanding of assessment requirements and assessment feedback, the importance of programme-focussed assessment, and the issue of assessment standards.
In 2015, he was a member of a team that reviewed external examining arrangements in the UK and since 2016 he has been a member of the Advance HE Degree standards project team.
He has been a Fellow of the RSA, a Senior Fellow of SEDA (Staff and Educational Development Association) and was one of the first fourteen Senior Fellows of the UK Higher Education Academy.
Marion Waite, Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University
Marion is from a healthcare background with a 17 year career in the UK NHS as a nurse, midwife and health visitor prior to moving into a career in higher education.
Marion has pioneered the development of online distance learning programmes in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences including the MSc Nursing Studies which bring together a global network of experienced nurse practitioners to collaborate using the latest teaching and learning technologies. She is also currently researching with colleagues in the Faculty of Technology, Design & Environment on developing mobile applications to support decision-making for people with diabetes.
Marion is seconded to OCSLD as a tutor on the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education and has been part of a team who have recently ran one of the UK’s very first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS), #FSLT12. Marion also teaches on the online tutoring course for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Marion was awarded a Brookes Teaching Fellowship in 2012 in order to lead a project aimed at supporting lecturers and students to collaboratively write for publication.
Dave Wilkinson
Dave has worked in many areas of training and education, including teacher/trainer training for the Home Office and the Police, management training in industry and was Head of Quality Assurance (Training) with the Home Office.
Dave was initially educated as a psychologist with the Open University. He also has an MSc in research methodologies from Oxford University. He is currently engaged in doctoral research examining the links between institutional culture and learning motivation. Current research activity and interests include learning and accelerated learning, the philosophy of education, institutional culture and IT and learning.
